Hurricane Bonnie adds some punch 08/23/98

Sunday, August 23, 1998Story last updated at 12:37 a.m. on Sunday, August 23, 1998

Hurricane Bonnie adds some punch

Storm gains strength; called threat to Florida

By Derek L. Kinner

Times-Union staff writer

Hurricane Bonnie strengthened rapidly and churned slowly toward the U.S. coast yesterday, keeping relief and military officials in Northeast Florida on alert.

''The major threat right now is for the middle of Florida,'' Jerry Jarrell, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said late last night. ''The most logical place for a landfall is from Cape Canaveral to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.''

Or the storm could veer out to sea beginning late today and miss the U.S. coast entirely, Jarrell said. Several of the hurricane center's computerized projections showed the storm missing Florida, but one reliable indicator suggested Central Florida could take a direct hit Tuesday or Wednesday.

American Red Cross workers in Jacksonville were taking no chances yesterday.

''The first thing we've done is alerted all of our key personnel,'' Red Cross spokeswoman Christian Smith said yesterday afternoon. ''They are at headquarters right now going through shelter lists and preliminarily assigning people [volunteers] to different shelters. They're determining which areas we would open up first.''

Heavy surf advisories were issued from Central Florida through Georgia. National Weather Service officials in Jacksonville recommended no ocean swimming today and said boating would be unsafe.

Bonnie grew from a tropical storm yesterday morning into a strong Category 2 hurricane last night with sustained winds of 105 mph. At 11 p.m., the center of the 300-mile-long hurricane was about 195 miles east of San Salvador, Bahamas, or about 700 miles southeast of Jacksonville.

Once a fast-moving storm, Bonnie nearly stalled yesterday. It was expected to move west northwest near 10-12 mph, with that motion expected to continue through most of today. If it hits the United States, landfall would likely be Tuesday, a day after the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Andrew's arrival in Dade County, Jarrell said.

The Hurricane Center said Bonnie likely would become a Category 3 storm with winds of more than 111 mph capable of causing extensive damage. Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia have not been hit by a hurricane that strong this century.

Weather Service officials in Jacksonville said late last night, that on its forecasted track, Bonnie would pass 300 to 350 miles off the Northeast Florida coast.

A task force from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was summoned to the National Hurricane Center late yesterday.

''This is a serious storm,'' Jarrell said. ''We think it will become a dangerous storm.''

Jacksonville's Emergency Preparedness Center wasn't activated yesterday, but officials were in contact with the hurricane center and planned another teleconference with the center this morning.

''We are monitoring the storm like anyone else,'' said Chip Patterson, director of the Jacksonville center.

But Mayport Naval Station officials decided to take no chances and sent 25 ships out to sea at 4 p.m.

''They're going to go south, along the coast of Florida and down the Florida Strait,'' Lt. Cmdr. Conrad Chun said. ''They'll be watching Bonnie closely and determine which path to go.''

NASA canceled the scheduled launch tomorrow of an unmanned Delta rocket and the first flight of a new hurricane research plane. Instead of flying into the eye of the storm, the crew packed for a possible evacuation.

Bahamian forecaster Basil Dean said the islands closest to the hurricane would experience waves 6 to 9 feet above normal, and Bonnie's storm surge and rain could cause local flooding.

The islands' meteorological department said Bonnie would have the greatest effect on San Salvador island, which could see five to 10 inches of rain, while more populated areas, including the capital of Nassau, were unlikely to suffer as much from the storm.

Last night, the hurricane warning was discontinued in the Turks and Caicos and downgraded to a tropical storm warning in the southeastern Bahamas.

In Jacksonville, Salvation Army workers also were on alert yesterday, spokeswoman Mary Van Osdol said, but they were waiting to see what the hurricane does. She said the Salvation Army can mobilize quickly if needed.

''We're prepared to go out in the field, but we haven't been notified to open any additional shelters or safe places as of yet,'' she said.

''One of the things that we've been really telling people is to remind them to get their disaster kit out now, and go get your [vehicle's] tank filled with gas,'' she said.

Meanwhile, another weather system that threatened parts of Texas lost power yesterday. Tropical Storm Charley weakened to a depression over the Lone Star State. Matagorda Island to the south was hit the hardest with 9 inches of rain and 70-mph wind gusts.

And forecasters were watching another developing tropical wave east of Venezuela yesterday.

Times-Union staff writer Kathleen Sweeney contributed to this report, which contains material from The Associated Press and Knight-Tribune News Service.